Bankruptcy

o Creditors lose when customers file bankruptcy o Bankruptcy filings continue to rise Together 18 years, the Hagerstown man and his wife were working full time and paying their bills when the bottom began to fall out. First, his hours at a local auto business were cut as the recession hit. Then her boss stopped paying for health insurance and, as the secretary's medical needs grew, she had to pay the entire premium of...

As I found myself reading the USA Today newspaper the other morning, one article caught my attention and I wondered if its story represented the future. In Rhode Island, the town of Central Falls is filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Although the article suggested that municipal bankruptcies were rare in number it did mention several other jurisdictions. Jefferson County, Ala., and Harrisburg, Pa., our nearby neighbor, have also been exploring the possibilities of filing bankruptcy.

Grove bankruptcy plan approved By RICHARD F. BELISLE / Staff Writer, Waynesboro SHADY GROVE, Pa. - The approval Monday of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring plan for Grove Worldwide "means good news for the community, our employees, customers and suppliers," said Jeffry D. Bust, company chairman and chief executive officer. continued Under the reorganization approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, Grove will trade $379 million worth of debt for company stock, Bust said.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- It's hard to understand sometimes, this American system of forgiving debts. "It's just aggravating," said Irvin Martin, president of an area electrical contracting business, who is having to walk away from a debt of more than $27,000 owed him. Martin's company and many others across the nation are being left pretty much empty-handed as Americans in ever-increasing numbers file for bankruptcy protection from debts....

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The emergence of Quebecor World from bankruptcy proceedings in Canada and the United States, and the financial restructuring that made it possible, will not affect the company's plants in the Tri-State area, a company spokesman said Wednesday. "There's no impact on the Martinsburg or Fairfield, Pa., plants," Quebecor World spokesman Tony Ross said. The Montreal-based company, which is changing its name to World Color Press Inc., and its affiliated debtors and debtors-in-possession announced Tuesday they had successfully emerged from protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act in Canada (CCAA)

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- It's hard to understand sometimes, this American system of forgiving debts. "It's just aggravating," said Irvin Martin, president of an area electrical contracting business, who is having to walk away from a debt of more than $27,000 owed him. Martin's company and many others across the nation are being left pretty much empty-handed as Americans in ever-increasing numbers file for bankruptcy protection from debts....

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) -- Nearly 400 workers who lost their jobs when AB&C closed call centers in Martinsburg and Ranson in March will have to wait for their final paychecks. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Patrick Flatley ruled July 2 that bankruptcy laws prevent him from immediately releasing about $345,000 to the laid-off workers. A class-action lawsuit filed in March in Berkeley County Circuit Court seeks to recover three weeks of wages for the former employees. The company filed for bankruptcy on April 4. Attorney Kathy Santa Barbara, who represents the employees, says she may appeal Flatley's ruling.

The bondholders for the closed $250 million paper recycling plant in Hagerstown have filed for bankruptcy involuntarily on behalf of the partnership that owns the plant, officials said Monday. The bondholders filed for Chapter 7 on behalf of Hagerstown Fiber Limited Partnership on Dec. 17 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greenbelt, Md., according to court records. Joseph J. Bellinger, who represents First National Bank of Maryland, the trustee for the bondholders, would not comment Monday.

The public sale of a Sharpsburg restaurant's property is on hold because its former owners have filed for bankruptcy, attorney Roger Schlossberg said Tuesday. The New Central Restaurant, on the former property of American Legion Post 236, was the focus of controversy because the town would not let the owners put up an advertising sign on Main Street. Albert Paul Carson and E. JoAnn Carson, the former restaurant owners, defaulted on a deed for the restaurant property, Schlossberg said.

Bugle Boy to close local outlet store Bugle Boy announced Friday it is closing 215 clothing stores nationwide, including one at Prime Outlets at Hagerstown. The parent company, which is based in Simi Valley, Calif., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 1. On Wednesday, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Los Angeles allowed a three-company partnership to liquidate $144 million in Bugle Boy inventory. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a business to get relief from its debts while it reorganizes.

A Berkeley County Council member's petition for bankruptcy has surfaced in a wrongful termination lawsuit that the county's former facilities director filed against him and the council, according to court records. The termination lawsuit filed last month in Berkeley County Circuit Court on behalf of Jay Russell of Winchester, Va., names the council and Councilman Douglas E. Copenhaver Jr., as defendants. Russell is asking for unspecified general damages; reinstatement of employment, benefits and seniority rights; back wages; future lost earnings and benefits in lieu of reinstatement; attorneys' fees; and punitive damages, according to the lawsuit.

An involuntary petition for bankruptcy filed last week is aimed at a company that owns dozens of radio stations, including in Hagerstown. Nassau Broadcasting Partners L.P. of Princeton, N.J., is facing a chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which assets are liquidated to pay debt. Nassau Broadcasting says on its website that it operates 14 radio stations in the Mid-Atlantic region and 31 in New England. In Hagerstown, it has 106.9 The Eagle/WWEG-FM, a rock station, and WARK-AM 1490, which airs talk shows and oldies music.

As I found myself reading the USA Today newspaper the other morning, one article caught my attention and I wondered if its story represented the future. In Rhode Island, the town of Central Falls is filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Although the article suggested that municipal bankruptcies were rare in number it did mention several other jurisdictions. Jefferson County, Ala., and Harrisburg, Pa., our nearby neighbor, have also been exploring the possibilities of filing bankruptcy.

Customers shopping at the Borders book store in Hagerstown Wednesday, hours after the chain filed for bankruptcy protection, said they depended on the bookseller for their reading material. The company plans to close about 200 of its 642 stores over the next few weeks, but the Hagerstown store apparently has been spared. Mary Davis, a spokeswoman for Borders, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., said Wednesday that the Hagerstown store is "not on the list of the 200 that are closing.

Customers shopping at the Borders book store in Hagerstown Wednesday, hours after the chain filed for bankruptcy protection, said they depended on the bookseller for their reading material. The company plans to close about 200 of its 642 stores over the next few weeks, but the Hagerstown store apparently has been spared. Mary Davis, a spokeswoman for Borders, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., said Wednesday that the Hagerstown store is "not on the list of the 200 that are closing. " But, she noted: "We can never guarantee that a store will stay open indefinitely.

HAGERSTOWN -- Is it fair that people who have been bailed out of debt by the bankruptcy law get to be cleared of all of their debts again? And again? In five of 20 cases where the question was asked during a recent U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing in Hagerstown, the debtor said he or she had gotten bankruptcy relief at least once before. In one case, a woman had gotten it twice before. "It used to be every six years you could file for bankruptcy. Now, it's eight," said Cheryl E. Rose, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court trustee in Maryland.

o For those buried in debt, bankruptcy is a lifeline o Bankruptcy filings continue to rise Let's say you own a furniture store and somebody buys a sofa -- and doesn't have to pay because after making the purchase, he gets bankruptcy relief. Who could blame you for looking at the consumer and yelling, "That couch is sitting in your living room and I'm not getting paid for it?" That's a good example of the anger felt by creditors, said Michael A. Llewellyn, a Cumberland, Md., attorney who recently argued his first bankruptcy protest.

o Creditors lose when customers file bankruptcy o Bankruptcy filings continue to rise Together 18 years, the Hagerstown man and his wife were working full time and paying their bills when the bottom began to fall out. First, his hours at a local auto business were cut as the recession hit. Then her boss stopped paying for health insurance and, as the secretary's medical needs grew, she had to pay the entire premium of...

o For those buried in debt, bankruptcy is a lifeline o Creditors lose when customers file bankruptcy The latest statistics from http://www.uscourts.gov , which tracks such records, show that in the 12 months from April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010, a total of 1.5 million cases were filed. That's 27 percent more than the 1.2 million filed during the previous 12 months. The young woman was well-spoken, so the bankruptcy official was puzzled when she hesitated before giving her home address.

BALTIMORE -- A Hagerstown woman who owned a health care company specializing in weight management was convicted by a federal jury Monday of fraudulently obtaining more than $1.1 million in loans for her home and of bankruptcy fraud, according to the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. Olusola Idowu, 57, was convicted on two counts of wire fraud and one count each of bankruptcy fraud, making false statements in a bankruptcy proceeding, filing a false tax return and failing to file a corporate tax return, according to the verdict announced by U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge C. Andre Martin of the Internal Revenue Service.